Cambridge To Consider Banning ‘Right on Red' At All its Intersections

Right now turning right on red is prohibited in 75% of the intersections in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and on Monday the Cambridge City Council will discuss eliminating right on red at all intersections in the city.

It's part of the Zero Vision Action Plan, which is aimed at eliminating traffic injuries and fatalities.  Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon said several cities have already done this.  “In Washington DC when they did a pilot program they saw intersections that previously had had conflict with pedestrians or cyclists go down 92%," she explained.

She said right on red is a relic of the gas-shortage days of the early seventies and was designed to save fuel.  Some people we spoke with were skeptical at the thought of banning it here.

"It's going to be a lot of traffic because the bike’s going to get to go through but the cars are all going to be stretched upon each other," driver Kianna Givens said.

Others though, both drivers and cyclists, felt it just might work. 

Eric Barrios commutes every day from Boston 

“There’s a lot of bikes here so I mean as long as we can keep them safe some way, somehow, I mean, there are a lot of cars, a lot of bikes, intersections are really, really small.”

Harry Bullivant is moving over from London and he said Cambridge isn’t so bad.

“I’ve felt pretty safe cycling around here so far compared to London which is pretty good going for an American city so anything that makes it safer is great.”

Melida Semedo is a cyclist and she isn’t sure banning right on red will matter because it's more about the people, not the traffic laws.

  “Like today this lady just called me the B word trying to hurry up and get out of her way and she was just very upset and I don’t think that was nice.  I think these drivers need to be...they need to be more patient and polite," Semedo said.

You can't legislate that.

Washington D.C, New York and Ann Arbor have all already banned right on red.